What would be the best GPS to get to track info while flying? Things like distance traveled, angle flown stuff like that. I am looking to buy a GPS for this purpose, just don't know which one would be the right one?

What would be the best GPS to get to track info while flying? Things like distance traveled, angle flown stuff like that. I am looking to buy a GPS for this purpose, just don't know which one would be the right one?

Looks like Flyisght has been reccommended. Haven't wanted to know before now. I want to know as much data as I can after each jump. I own a Phantom3 and a V4 now. I also already own a Neptune and according to the website any paralogger will do.

Looking at the website the software looks complicated, unless that's just me. I am sure it isn't complicated at all.

i have a wintec wbt-201 which works great with paralog once u have it setup.. setting up can be a pain.. dont think it is mac friendly to setup but once the setting are in place, i just bluetooth it using my mac to paralog. it is pretty cheap to buy. flysight is much more user friendly but there are other options.

Looks like Flyisght has been reccommended. Haven't wanted to know before now. I want to know as much data as I can after each jump. I own a Phantom3 and a V4 now. I also already own a Neptune and according to the website any paralogger will do.

Looking at the website the software looks complicated, unless that's just me. I am sure it isn't complicated at all.

There is no need to buy any extra software at first. Flysight has a Windows and OS X data viewer for quick reviews of your flight. Uploading into Paralog is valuable if you want to analyze the competition window.

This stuff is all made by wingsuiters for wingsuiters and works just as well for tracking and I think even the swoopers use it so...

I haven't really seen or heard of anything else that does it all and does it as well as this

I don't know if the Paralog software give you the total distance of the flight or not. The Flysight viewer does not. Using the Flysight data I wrote an Excel macro that will calculate the distance from each point to the next point and add the distance to an empty column. Then it will sum the hundreds of flight segments together to give you the total flight distance. You need to select the starting row and the ending row in the data and then run the macro.

I haven't gotten any of the software yet. Though when I return and get back to jumping I would like to know total distance traveled each jump.

Are there other ways to determine distance traveled?

Do you mean, "Other ways to determine distance from GPS data, but without software"? Yes, if you want to do the math. I found the formula on the Internet that I put in my Excel sheet. Let me know if you want more information on this.

I recently tested the Flight HUD from Recon Instruments, the FlySight from Bionic Avionics, and the Skydiver GPS app. I wasn't able to load the Flight HUD's data into Google Earth, but Recon is working on a Google Earth export feature. Recon's online analytics software, called Engage, is limited when looking at jump metrics and is better suited for looking at ski/snowboard runs. Recon is working on software and firmware updates, so at the moment this leaves the FlySight and Skydiver GPS app up for comparison.

First let's look at the hardware of the iPhone and FlySight. Compared to the iPhone GPS, the FlySight's purpose-built GPS shines. The iPhone was designed with tight space constraints, particularly with regard to antenna size—the first “line of defense” against noise for any GPS. Ordinarily, the iPhone gets around this fact by using cell towers to narrow things down quickly. However, at altitude those signals aren’t available, so the fix quality suffers quite a bit. This is evident in the Google Earth plots when the Skydiver GPS app data shows altitude increasing at times during free-fall (currently impossible unless you're wingsuiting and ground effect comes into play or your name is Yves Rossy), while the FlySight data shows a constant descent. You can also see the Skydiver GPS app doesn't get a strong signal lock until after I've already exited. Once under canopy, Skydiver GPS and FlySight data were very close to one another.

Not only is the FlySight's data the most accurate, it also easily works in either the FlySight Viewer or Paralog. Both are extremely flexible analytic tools. FlySight Viewer allows you to stack or combine graphs, and the variables for each axis are configurable. See your elevation, horizontal speed, vertical speed, total speed, or glide ratio versus time or distance. So when it comes to software and the FlySight, you have options!

When exporting data from the FlySight Viewer as a .KML file and opening it in Google Earth, the default setting for Google Earth is to have altitude “clamped to ground”. If you right-click on the imported layer, then go to Get Info (Properties), change to the Altitude tab, and change the drop-down to “absolute”, you should see the full 3D view of your flight.

FlySight also provides real-time feedback, which allows you to correct your body position on the spot. Recon's Flight HUD also provides real-time feedback but at a slower 1Hz versus FlySight's 5Hz, which means it has the potential to be a contender and I look forward to future updates from Recon. Skydiver GPS is not as full featured or accurate due to the phone's hardware, but it is free and extremely user friendly. Without a doubt, FlySight is still the reigning champion.

I recently tested the Flight HUD from Recon Instruments, the FlySight from Bionic Avionics, and the Skydiver GPS app. I wasn't able to load the Flight HUD's data into Google Earth, but Recon is working on a Google Earth export feature. Recon's online analytics software, called Engage, is limited when looking at jump metrics and is better suited for looking at ski/snowboard runs. Recon is working on software and firmware updates, so at the moment this leaves the FlySight and Skydiver GPS app up for comparison. http://flic.kr/p/dSWHHu

Skywombat has made a tool that converts the recon files into gpx format that paralog and Google Earth can open.

I recently tested the Flight HUD from Recon Instruments, the FlySight from Bionic Avionics, and the Skydiver GPS app. I wasn't able to load the Flight HUD's data into Google Earth, but Recon is working on a Google Earth export feature. Recon's online analytics software, called Engage, is limited when looking at jump metrics and is better suited for looking at ski/snowboard runs. Recon is working on software and firmware updates, so at the moment this leaves the FlySight and Skydiver GPS app up for comparison. http://flic.kr/p/dSWHHu

Skywombat has made a tool that converts the recon files into gpx format that paralog and Google Earth can open.

I recently tested the Flight HUD from Recon Instruments, the FlySight from Bionic Avionics, and the Skydiver GPS app. I wasn't able to load the Flight HUD's data into Google Earth, but Recon is working on a Google Earth export feature. Recon's online analytics software, called Engage, is limited when looking at jump metrics and is better suited for looking at ski/snowboard runs. Recon is working on software and firmware updates, so at the moment this leaves the FlySight and Skydiver GPS app up for comparison. http://flic.kr/p/dSWHHu

Skywombat has made a tool that converts the recon files into gpx format that paralog and Google Earth can open.

Thank you for the link. I tried to download the zip several times and the status bar had "waiting for github.com..." while the page attempted to load for half an hour. Other pages were loading fine.

Also, the terminal interface and Mac instructions aren't very well suited for the general public. I also didn't have good results with the following online converter: http://www.jori.ws/recon_decode/

QUICK UPDATE: MrCat was kind enough to send me the zip file, but it didn't work in 64 bit Windows and the Mac instructions are pretty ridiculous. I try my best to avoid free dev work - so until the competition fixes their products, I'll stick with FlySight.

The nerve of some people... writing free software and trying to help you use it. Where do they get off? Ridiculous indeed.

If you put 1/1000 of the effort that the developer put into making the software, into explaining your issue with the software, perhaps he could continue forward on his noble quest to help strangers for free and improve his ridiculous instructions. When those same strangers shit on him, it makes the world look like a shitty place.

@Skywombat: I don't use the Recon, but on principle I appreciate your work and hope you can help all the ridiculous Mac users to fully enjoy it also.

I used the converter that Skywombat coded and I think the 64bit issue is just a path problem - in 64 bit windows the program directory for Java is "program files (86)" and not just "program files" - I've seen commercial software fall over on that one.

I just fired up a 32bit VM and ran it there where it worked perfectly.

If I get a sec I'll have look at the script and I guess just adding the full path to find java will sort it out.

LOL - it just took me less time to change the file than to type this in - the attached zip file has the right path for 64bit...

Sorry if I offended anyone with my reviews, but I review products with the general public in mind. Just sent my Flight HUD and FlySight data from my test jumps to Bionic Avionics and Paralog. I'm excited to see Flight HUD integration with FlySight Viewer and Paralog. Thanks for the updated file, MrCat!

Duh - use the "if exist" - this file works on both 64 bit and 32 bit windows o/s.

Note - you need to download skywombats converter from the other thread and replace the convert_win.cmd with the version in this zip file. All praise and credit goes to Skywombat - he's done all the work on the converter - I've just fine tuned his batch file.